Threadcounts
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [drabble collection] They were small and almost insignificant in the larger picture, but without those moments, the story of life would fall apart. / 7. Yuuma had faced a lot of difficult opponents before, but not like Kaito. 8. Droite didn't think birds were ugly, but she preferred butterflies. 9. Kotori and Cathy would never cease their squabbling.
1. Durbe&Nasch, Friendship

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile)

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Character(s)**: Durbe, Nasch  
**Challenge(s):** ZEXAL Flash Bingo, #011 – genre: friendship

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Nasch was relieved to see the silhouette of Durbe and his Pegasus against the clouds. He wasn't the first to spot the pair; guards had been on watch since an afternoon ago, and one had ran to his throne room with the news.

By the time he and Merag had emerged on the balcony, children from the palace had spilt into the courtyard and were pointing excitedly. But Nasch could not be excited, nor happy: just relieved. And Merag, always there like the supporting shadow that walked just behind, was equally sombre and relieved.

Durbe and his Pegasus landed down below, and the children surged forward. It took a moment for the young knight to untangle himself from them, then another as he spoke with two of the guards.

Nasch frowned a little as he remembered his argument with them. Merag squeezed his shoulder, and the pair of them watched Durbe bid farewell to the guards and make his way inside. He confessed himself pleased to note the guards hadn't insisted on escorting him – though he couldn't blame their suspicions. With war looming overhead, an enemy could attack from anywhere.

But Nasch trusted Durbe, and soon, Durbe is in the throne room and wearing a tight smile, and Nasch is wearing an equally forced expression as he embraces his friend. 'I was worried you wouldn't come,' he confessed as they parted and Durbe bowed politely to Merag, who replied with a curtsey.

Durbe's expression softened a bit. 'I had to come,' he said. There was much else he could have said after that, but he chose the simplest of them: 'I am your friend.'

Nasch hid his expression to that, so Merag took the reins of the conversation. 'I hope the guards did not trouble you,' she said. 'I'm afraid we're all a little on edge as of late.'

Durbe looks at the still-strained form of Nasch before replying: 'Not at all; they simply told me to look after their King.'

Nasch nodded slowly at that. 'I see,' he said, before giving his head a little shake. 'Durbe, do you bring any news with you?'

Durbe did, and with it their brief reunion came to a halt, and the war council which he had come to attend began.


	2. Vector's Father, Lost

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile).

**_This drabble contains spoilers for episode 137. If you haven't seen it yet and don't want spoilers, don't read on. Including the rest of this A/N._**

A scenario in which Don Thousand's manipulation stretches further than just the generation of the Barians. Why was Vector's father so obsessed with domination? Why was he still with his wife if their ideals clashed so dramatically? With how that episode and the couple following it changed my outlook on Vector (though I had my suspicions, because it's Yugioh and everyone has a reason somewhere. :D), I wondered if the same couldn't have been applied to Vector's father as well.

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Character(s)**: Vector's Father  
**Challenge(s):** Character Diversity Boot Camp, #050 – lost

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He had hoped to gain much more before succumbing to his wavering heart, but when the weakness left him unable to move, he was forced to leave matters to his son.

He worried about that, endlessly. He'd tried to teach him how to rule: what power really meant and what means one had to be willing to obtain it. He'd tried to imprint the importance of utter domination and control – but he worried, because Vector had his wife's softness as well.

And he had been right to worry, he knew, when he heard his son tell of how he'd lain down all he'd fought for these long years for the illusion of _peace_. As if such a wretched thing existed, except in foolish dreams. He would have struck it out of his fanciful son if he could, except he could not raise a hand to do so.

He dropped his flask instead, watching it shatter like his hope for the future. Red wine spilled out like blood and gurgled on the shards and his vision became utter black, and before he knew it, that same blood was bathing all of them as well: himself, the wife he had once loved before her hopes for peace and his bloodlust had driven them apart, and the dear sweet son they'd sired together.

He saw the reaper before his eyes close, and in that last, merciful, moment he tasted the blood that stains his form and asked how he could have become such a monster. But it was too late, and too late to warn his son as the reaper goes towards his next victim; he'd already said it all, said everything that would send the world back into a world of darkness and war.

He remembered, for a faint moment, the dream he had had for peace before the reaper had consumed him. And, as he died, he saw that same dream sucked out and swallowed by his son, lost until death – or even more.


	3. Shark&Yuuma, Friendship

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile)

I had two 011 numbers on my card, hence two with the same "prompt". :D

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Character(s)**: Shark (Ryouga), Yuuma  
**Challenge(s):** ZEXAL Flash Bingo, #011 – genre: friendship

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Shark had no-one. Once he'd had his parents. They'd died when he was still a kid. Once he'd had his sister. Some bastard had snatched her away from him and left her in a hospital bed. Once he'd had adoring fans cheering him on to the finals. He'd lost them when he'd been disqualified, disgraced. Once he'd had his gang. They'd abandoned him when he lost to Tsukumo Yuuma.

And yet he couldn't think of hurting Yuuma, of making him pay. How that boy had been, fighting for his friend and putting his own deck and precious Ou key on the line, had awakened something in him, something that tangled with the bitterness of being abandoned and alone. Something that made him think, fleetingly, that he'd never had a _friend_.

Yuuma had said something like that, hadn't he? That those he duelled became his friends. That _Shark_ could become his friend.

Except Shark didn't have friends, and if he had them, they'd either abandon him or he'd get them hurt.


	4. Kissushipping, Maximum

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile)

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Pairing(s)**: Kissushipping (Akari/Charlie)  
**Challenge(s):** Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, #004 - maximum

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She didn't plan on waiting forever for him; she couldn't do that. She'd fallen in love before after all, and moved on, burying looks and letters and fluttering kisses under new stories she dug out from the world. It was one of the perks of the job: she could never be alone and stagnated, a floundering fish who'd lost their life's anchor, because too much more of the world had her in its grip. Stories of break-ins, gang wars and duelling tournaments and her brother's troubles left no room to wander after lost romances from the past.

But when _he_ came along to dig up old memories, it was another ballgame. And one she didn't like playing. She preferred her past buried, done with and forgotten once it had passed. Oh, she didn't mind the sparse school reunions or the bumping into old friends at the mall. But seeing Chris suddenly appear and disappear only to reappear again once she'd put him out of mind was another thing; it was like a butterfly she couldn't catch and stamp and then set aside, or like the monthly pains that came with womanhood, except he wasn't that predictable, only flushing her clean and filling her head again as he held her close and kissed her full on. And her head and heart would be filled to the brim when he vanished again, until he stopped vanishing and she stopped moving on.


	5. Yuuma&Astral, ZEXAL

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile)

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Characters(s)**: Yuuma, Astral  
**Challenge(s):** ZEXAL Flash Bingo, #190 - ZEXAL

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Yuuma had always been in awe of the power to Xyz summon, but he'd never imagined himself being overlayed. It was inconceivable after all, him being a human, and the one doing the duelling no less. But Astral had somehow made it possible.

He'd been overlayed with Astral, and that's how ZEXAL came into being. A new form, that somehow combined the two of them together, made them one, bonded them even closer than before. It wasn't like Yuma being the arms for Astral, or Astral the encouraging voice and backbone for Yuuma. They were one – one being, with one body, one heart and one mind.

It seemed natural after that to continue this way, when they could, when they'd been pushed into a corner. Because two heads were better than one, but two combined heads to make one were better than two individuals. Yuuma and Astral were most powerful when they were together, and ZEXAL quickly became the thing that tipped the scales in times of strife.

At first, Yuuma couldn't imagine now. Now, he can't imagine otherwise.


	6. Astral&Yuuma, Dark ZEXAL

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile)

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Characters(s)**: Astral, Yuuma  
**Challenge(s):** ZEXAL Flash Bingo, #193 – Dark ZEXAL

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Astral never imagined himself losing faith in Yuuma, but Vector had drawn it out of him. He couldn't even blame Vector for it, because he couldn't have drawn that doubt out if it had never existed.

He felt horribly guilty about it afterwards, seeing what it had done to Yuuma, and their duel. But he hadn't been able to help that doubt, or the bitterness and pain that had accompanied.

If he'd thought about it more rationally, he'd have realised it was Yuuma's nature to trust so carelessly, and he really couldn't have done anything different. He couldn't help but be sucked into Vector's neat little trap, because he always tried to see the best in everybody. And that had made an ally out of Shark, so they'd had no reason to think that Vector was so twisted a mind.

Unfortunately, he was, and he'd played his cards well. Astral had doubted, and both he and Yuuma had almost payed the price for that doubt. The corrosive attacks had dwindled their life points, leaving them almost at zero. The dark power in his mind had almost killed he and Yuuma both.

If Yuuma was less stubborn, less innocent, it might have killed them both. As it was, once their Dark ZEXAL form had fallen apart, there was little hope left in Astral for safety, or victory. But if Yuuma had been like Astral and lost hope – for him, the hope for forgiveness and Astral's friendship renewed – then they wouldn't be anything after Dark ZEXAL, except the void.


	7. Yuuma&Kaito, Terrify

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile).

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Characters(s)**: Yuuma & Kaito  
**Challenge(s):** ZEXAL Flash Bingo. #018 - terrify

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Yuuma's faced plenty of big guys before. People like Shark, and those gang not-buddies of his. Kaito's different though. There's something about Kaito that's different.

It doesn't help that Astral looks as terrified as he feels. And it doesn't help that Kaito is the most crushing duellist he's ever faced – and considering he's been crushed in duels a lot, that's really saying something. But those duels didn't have Astral helping – or Astral duelling, since Astral's pretty much calling all the shots this time.

That doesn't change the fact that they're losing though, and losing badly. And it's a hundred times worse this time because Yuuma hasn't lost a duel with Astral. Yuuma _can't_ lose a duel with Astral, because a loss means he loses Astral too.

Worse, Kaito's put an extra lock on this duel, a lock that'll cost Yuuma _his_ life too if they fail this – and they are failing. Badly.

Kaito doesn't remind Yuuma of all the bullies in the playground back in primary school that'd make him cry. He reminds him of that monster hidden in the darkness of his dreams that he can't escape from.


	8. Droite, Birds

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile).

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Characters(s)**: Droite  
**Challenge(s):** ZEXAL Flash Bingo. #065 - birds

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Birds had their own brand of beauty, but they had a certain edge to them that set them apart from butterflies. And, on the whole, she preferred the silent grace of butterflies that let them keep to the shadows and play the role of the assassin.

Birds were bright and loud, and they reminded her of Gauche more than herself…but Gauche had his niche: the heroes that brought smiles to children's' faces, that was him. And Droite had her butterflies: small and petite and seemingly week but with bitter poison along their wings. Enough for her to sneak through an enemy's defences and play her cards before the opponent can think to strike back. That suits her back, even if Gauche laughs she'll never score a date that way, even if it's only Gauche who treats her like a woman instead of just another person, regardless of gender.

Birds were beautiful too, but they were sharp and loud and drew too much attention to themselves. Heroes did much the same, and Kaito didn't need two of those. He needed someone who could defend him from the shadows as well as the light – or that's what she'd told herself at first. The truth was, she preferred the shadows: the way she could catch her opponents in a web before they realised, where she could plan her stage several moves ahead and rarely ever watch it crumble. The way she could use her brains when most opponents stood against her with brawn and crumbled beneath the slow but sure poison of her butterflies.

Birds had beaks and claws, but it was a hit and miss with those.


	9. Cattrapshipping, Dominate

**A/N:** This collection contains uncorrelated drabbles (no poetry) part of several different challenges (and possibly competitions too) from the Yugioh ZEXAL Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's on my profile).

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**Threadcounts**  
_a collection of drabbles_

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**Pairing(s)**: Cattrapshipping (Kotori/Cathy)  
**Challenge(s):** Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, #036 - dominate

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They fought constantly for domination: Cathy with her claws and Kotori with her well-seasoned beak. Together, they lost the shyness or the soft-spokedness that came when they were in other, less comfortable, company. Even with Yuma, and neither could say when they'd stopped chasing him and started ramming each other head on instead.

They were two of a pair, and everyone saw it. Everyone commented on how different and yet alike they were, how compatible. No-one thought it strange; it was though they were eternally to dance together, sharing the spotlight as they struggled slowly for a solo, and failed.

But, at some point, the struggle became less about the outcome and more about the ritual. Because they could only hate each other for so long before the company became tolerable. Because they could only be shoved together so many times before something gave way. Because Yuuma could only run off with Ryouga and Kaito so many times and leave them behind before they turned to each other for company.

Now their squabbles were more for fun than anything else, more because they'd danced it so many times their feet automatically followed the steps. And there was something alluring about it too, to each other, the way neither of them gave way or gave up – and their eternal spinning dance towards dominance would never end, though it no longer bothered them.


End file.
